Self-feeding paint brush



g- 1967 G. s. CROMPTON 3,335,450

SELF-FEEDING PAINT BRUSH Filed 001,- 28, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet l 1 I 1 7272 1 5? 7a 1 a, z 74 Q 5 4 Z 0 2 0% E g 70" i ii 12.] g,

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INVEH To R: GEORGE S. CROMPTON ArroRNEYJ 1967 G. s. CROMPTON 3,335,450

SELF-FEEDING PAINT BRUSH Filed Oct. 28, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 N V E N TC R RGE 5. CRonPTon A rrrrrr YS g- 1967 G. s. CROMPTON 3,335,450

SELF-FEEDING PAINT BRUSH Filed Oct. 28, 1964 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 3lIIFIII/i INVE N To #8: GEORGE C icmP'rooa RWE VS United States Patent3,335,450 SELF-FEEDING PAINT BRUSH George Stephen Crornpton, Liverpool,England, assignor of one-half to Rowland Ellis Jones, Liverpool, EnglandFiled Get. 28, 1964, Ser. No. 407,141 Claims priority, application GreatBritain, Dec. 17, 1963, 49,872/63 6 Claims. (Cl. 15-581) The presentinvention relates to a device for feeding paint or the like to a paintbrush head intermittently in dependence upon the application of pressureby the brush head against a surface to be painted. The invention alsorelates to a paint brush head which is suitable for use with thisdevice.

The object of the present invention is to provide a paint brushcomprising a handle and brush head wherein paint is supplied throughduct means to the head which is angularly displaceable relatively to thehandle and the flow of paint through said duct means is arrested whenthe brush head is in a given normal position relatively to the handleand is released when the head is angularly displaced from said normalposition on application of pressure to the head in the course ofpainting.

In a preferred mode of carrying the invention into effect a flexibletube for the supply of paint to the brush head passes through a bore inthe handle and is connected to a bore in the head and is squeezable fromopposite sides thereof to arrest the flow of paint therethrough bysqueezing elements mounted on the handle, which squeezing elements arewithdrawable in turn from the tube to release the flow of paint onangular displacement of the head relatively to the handle in onedirection and then in the other direction as pressure is applied to oneside of the brush head and then to the other side during the course ofpainting. Said squeezing elements may be spring loaded towards oneanother for squeezing engagement with the tube, such squeezingengagement being limited by their engagement against an abutment orabutments on the handle from which abutment or abutments each iswithdrawable in turn on relative angular displacement of the head andhandle in one direction and then in the other.

According to another feature of the present invention, a paint brushhead has at least one paint supply duct which extends within thebristles from the stock of the brush head towards the tip of thebristles of the brush head. By this means paint which is supplied to thebrush head is fed through the supply duct to the tip of the brush head.

For an average size of brush head it is preferable to have a transverseor widthwise row of at least three ducts to ensure a sufliciently evendistribution of paint over the tip of the brush. Furthermore, it isdesirable that the flexibility of the duct or ducts should be at leastequal to that of the brush head bristles and preferably significantlygreater. If the duct is not sufficiently flexible then after pressurehas been applied to it during a painting stroke of the brush head it islikely to remain bent when the bristles straighten'with the result thatthe bristles Will be bifurcated and the end of the duct will beuncovered by the bristles. It is essential that the end or ends of theduct or ducts be enveloped by the bristles. Moreover, undue stiffness ofthe duct will interfere with the painting function of the brush headsince its overall flexibility at the tip of the brush head will beimpaired.

More specifically, the second feature of the invention provides a paintbrush head having a flexible multiple duct block of oblong cross-sectiondivided into a number of ducts by a plurality of partitions, said ductblock extending from the stock of the brush head towards the tipPatented Aug. 15, 196'? thereof and having a flexibility at least equalto that of the bristles which enclose it.

The spacing between the tip of the paint brush head and the end of theduct or duct block is an important feature. If the duct or duct blockapproaches the tip of the bristles too closely there will be a tendencyfor paint to be fed only to those bristles in the immediate vicinity ofthe end of the duct or duct block. If the end of the duct or duct blockis too greatly spaced from the tip of the bristles then paint suppliedby the duct or duct block will tend to issue from the brush head at somelocality spaced from the painting tip and will thus not be readilyapplied to the surface to be painted. The spacing between the end of theduct or duct block and the painting tip of the brush head will varyaccording to the size and construction of the brush head but withreasonable trial and error it should be possible to achieve the correctspacing for a particular size of brush head. For an average two inchbrush head, the end of the duct block should be about inch to 12 inchfrom the tip of the bristles. To allow for shortening of the bristlesdue to wear it may often be advisable for the duct or duct block toterminate at or a little beyond the middle of the free bristle length.

With a widthwise duct block or row of ducts it is desirable that itshould be flexible in the transverse direction as well as in thelongitudinal direction to enable curved surfaces to be satisfactorilypainted.

The invention will be further described by way of example with referenceto the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a paint brush head according to theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view along the line II-II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the brush head;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view illustrating a paint brush andhandle according to the invention;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken at right angles to FIG. 4and illustrating only part of what is shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line VI-VI of FIG. 4 lookingupwardly; and

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary perspective view corresponding to a portion ofFIG. 4 with certain parts spaced away from their normal positions inorder more fully to reveal others.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 of the drawings, a paint brush according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention incorporates a duct block,generally indicated as '70, of oblong cross section divided into anumber of ducts 72 by a plurality of partitions 74. The brush comprisesa conventional vulcanised stock 76 in which the ends of bristles 78 areembedded. The stock 76 is reinforced by a ferrule 86. The stock 76 has aslot 82 extending therethrough and the central portion of the bristles78 is removed to accommodate the duct block 70 which extends from thestock 76 towards the tip 34 of the bristles 78. The duct block 70 has aflanged portion 86 which lies on the surface 88 of the stock 76, whenthe block 70 is positioned within the brush head.

The duct block 70 is made of a material such that it has a flexibilityat least equal to that of the bristles 78 collectively and preferably ismade of a material which gives it a flexibility significantly greaterthan that of the bristles 78. This ensures that the duct block does notinterfere with the painting function of the brush.

The longitudinal side edges of the ferrule 89 are flanged at 90 toafford connection of the brush head to a connector through which paintis supplied to the duct block 79 and hence to the bristles 78.

The spacing between the tip 84 of the bristles 78 of the brush head andthe end of the duct block is an important feature which will varyaccording to the size of the brush. An appropriate spacing for a twoinch brush is approximately to /2" but to allow for shortening of thebristles due to wear it may often be advisable for the duct block toterminate at or a little beyond the middle of the tree bristle lengthi.e. at or a little beyond the midposition between the upper edge of theferrule 80 and the tip 84. It will be appreciated that for very smallpaint brushes only a single duct may be necessary to feed paint to thebrush bristles.

Referring to FIGS. 4 to 7 a flexible tube 100 for the supply of paint toa brush head passes through a longitudinal bore 102 in a brush handle104. A brush head 106 substantially as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 ispivotally mounted on the handle 104 by means of a pair of arms 108 whichare pivotally secured to the handle by screws 110 and interconnected attheir free ends by a yoke 112. A rectangular connecting plate 114 issecured to the yoke 112 by screws 116 and at its centre it is formedwith a bore in which is received a short rigid tube 118 which permitsthe supply of paint through connecting plate 114-. The tube 118protrudes downwardly through the plate 114 into an opening 120 in theyoke 112. The opening 120 and the protruding part of the tube 118 aretapered and receive therebetween the end of the tube 100.

A pair of abutment posts 122 extend forwardly from the forward end ofthe handle 104. Squeezing elements 124, 125 are disposed at oppositesides of the posts 122 and are supported by bolts 126 which extendthrough aligned openings in the posts and squeezing elements and supportsprings 128 which are compressed against squeezing elements 124 by nuts130.

Between the posts 122 the squeezing elements 124, 125 are formed withopposed angular noses 132 which when the squeezing eelments 124, 125 arein engagement with opposite sides of the posts 122 squeeze the tube 100to an extent sufficient to close it as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5.

The arms 108 support inwardly directed projections 134, the inner endsof which are received between the ends of the squeezing elements 124,125 so that when the brush head 106 and the arms are angularly displacedas a result of painting the projections 134 push squeezing element 124or 125 away from the abutment posts 122 to at least partly withdraw oneof the noses 132 from the tube 100 to permit flow of paint along thetube. Thus as the brush head 106 is angularly displaced in one directionand then in the other direction as painting proceeds first one and thenthe other of the squeezing elements 124, 125 is withdrawn from the tube100 to enable paint to be supplied intermittently to the brush head 106through the duct block 70.

The rate of supply of paint can be adjusted by adjusting of the nuts 130to alter the compression of the springs 128.

The stock of the brush head is embraced by a ferrule 136 formed withopposed inturned flanges 138 to provide opposed inwardly directedchannels to receive connecting plate 114. The ferrule 136 with itsflanges 138 thus provides a mounting means for attachment of the brushhead to the handle.

I claim:

1. A paint brush comprising two pivotally connected members each havinga bore therein to allow the passage of paint therethrough, one of saidmembers being formed for attachment to a brush head and the other ofsaid members serving as a handle and being adapted for connection to asource of paint; biasing means tending to maintain said members in agiven normal alignment; and valve means actuable by relative angularmovement of said members to arrest the passage of paint through saidmembers when the members are normally aligned and to allow the passageof paint therethrough when one of the members is pivoted relative to theother, said valve means comprising a flexible tube passing through thebore of the other of said members and connected to the bore of said onemember and squeezing elements mounted on said other member at oppositesides of said tube, said squeezing elements being separatelywithdrawable in turn from the tube to release the flow of painttherethrough on angular displacement of said one member relatively tothe other in one direction and then in the other direction as pressureis applied to one side of the brush head and then to the other side inthe course of painting.

2. A device according to claim 1 comprising at least one abutment onsaid other member, said squeezing elements being located at oppositesides of said abutment and spring means for drawing said squeezingelements towards and into engagement with said abutment so as tointerrupt flow of paint through the tube when both are in engagementwith the abutment.

3. A device according to claim 1 comprising a pair of arms connectingsaid one member to said other member, said one member incorporating abrush head support, a pair of abutment posts extending from said othermember towards said one member, said squeezing elements being located atopposite sides of said abutment posts, spring means urging saidsqueezing elements towards and into abutment with said abutment postswhereby to squeeze the tube to arrest the flow of paint therethrough andinward projections on said arms located between said squeezing elementsadapted to withdraw one or other of said squeezing elements fromengagement with said abutment posts on angular displacement of said armsin one direction or the other.

4. A device according to claim 3 comprising aligned openings throughsaid posts and through said squeezing elements and bolts passing throughsaid aligned openings for supporting said squeezing elements from saidposts.

5. A device according to claim 4 comprising adjustably loaded springsmounted on said bolts for urging the squeezing elements towards theabutment posts.

6. A paint brush comprising two interhinged members namely a brush headand a handle, passage means in said handle and brush head respectively,a flexible tube extending through the passage means of the handle andengaging the passage means of the head to enable paint to be suppliedthrough said tube to the head, supporting means extending from one ofsaid interhinged members towards the other, at least one squeezingelement displaceably supported by said supporting means so as to becapable of moving in a direction substantially perpendicular to thehandle towards and away from the tube to close and open the same, springmeans urging said squeezing element towards the tube to close the sameand means carried by the other of said interhinged members for engagingsaid squeezing element to move it in a direction away from the tube onangular displacement of the brush head relatively to the handle in agiven direction during a painting stroke.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,041,173 5/1936 Fairchild 15-6032,206,208 7/ 1940 Thomas 15-579 X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,006,772 1/ 1952France.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner.

S. E. BECK, E. L. ROBERTS, Assistant Examiners.

6. A PAINT BRUSH COMPRISING TWO INTERHINGED MEMBERS NAMELY A BRUSH HEADAND A HANDLE, PASSAGE MEANS IN SAID HANDLE AND BRUSH HEAD RESPECTIVELY,A FLEXIBLE TUBE EXTENDING THROUGH THE PASSAGE MEANS OF THE HANDLE ANDENGAGING TH PASSAGE MEANS OF THE HEAD TO ENABLE PAINT TO BE SUPPLIEDTHROUGH SAID TUBE TO THE HEAD, SUPPORTING MEANS EXTENDING FROM ONE OFSAID INTERHINGED MEMBERS TOWARS THE OTHER, AT LEAST ONE SQUEEZINGELEMENT DISPLACEABLY SUPPORTED BY SAID SUPPORTING MEANS SO AS TO BECAPABLE OF MOVING IN A DIRECTION SUBSTANTIALLY PERPENDICULAR TO THEHANDLE TOWARDS AND AWAY FROM THE TUBE TO CLOSE AND OPEN THE SAME, SPRINGMEANS URGING SAID SQUEEZING ELEMENT TOWARDS THE TUBE TO CLOSE THE SAMEAND MEANS CARRIED BY THE OTHER OF SAID INTERHINGED MEMBERS FOR ENGAGINGSAID SQUEEZING ELEMENT TO MOVE IT IN A DIRECTION